Boards

Good game last night, not amazing, but a welcome relief from 0-0 draws. Balotelli is entertainingly mental, Pirlo is ace, Buffon is still great.

I actually thought Germany were unlucky not to be in it, Gomez was a waste of space in the first half, and unfortunately so was Podolski. Ozil is ace as well, nice to see the contrasting playmaker styles between him and Pirlo.

Now that's more like it, some goals and lot of incidents in 90 minutes. Italy deserved the win, Germany looked out of sorts but Italy played a great game and Balotelli done the business. Loved the slow motion non celebration after his 2nd and then his face distorting as the player came to hug him

The first half was very open and you could see either side scoring, then in the second...if you're two goals down then the longer you go without scoring, the harder it gets. Germany never 'carved open' Italy, but they were making decent attacks, just would have taken something a bit special to smash through that defence in the second half.

They were going fucking mental. It was probably the best atmosphere I've ever experienced watching a football match, every time Ballotelli came onscreen they all started singing songs about him at the top of their voices. Pretty great game as well, probably best of the tournament (that I've watched).

1) can the italian goalkeeper not just hold the ball for the last ten minutes?
2) why did germany not really try to win very hard? like for the last half hour or something then didn't really seem that arsed about it
3) do camera men like scope out people that look like they might cry so they can get the camera on them quickly?
4) also do they just try to look at hot girls?
5) you get a yellow card for taking your clothes off?
6) there was one bit where i thought the italian was offside but apparently he wasn't! but he didn't score anyway

1)no the keeper has to let go after 6 seconds, he could put it on the floor and keep it forever though
2)I'm not sure, Germany have an annoying habit of having great tournaments and then falling apart before the final for no real reason.
3&4) Yes, certainly in this tournament anyway, its been a running joke.
5) Yes, as of about... ten years ago? It might offend someone on religious grounds or more to the point, you can't see the advert on the shirt (not that that matters in international football)
6) Yes, you were right he was offside, this is your first taste of OFFICIALS ANGER

7) alan said something about "he pictures it in his head and then he does it" so alan is just describing the process of thinking? thinking and then doing?

8) why do they have a bit of talk with the guys in the studio (alan, gary and two foreign people i didn't know) and then ALL of a sudden for no reason decide to have talking with two people on the pitch? (martin and someone else) like, why are they by the pitch, that seems weird. also, whenever it went to them sam was like "oh ffs who wants to know the thoughts of martin keown really?". what's up with him? he seemed nice.

you're gonna have to get used to both at the same time, including English media coverage having a slightly xenophobic/misguided view on EVERYTHING and its upto you whether you buy that all foreigners are untrustworthy ala Liam Neeson in Taken or whether to resist this like most of DiS

They've played well within themselves, be it because they're tired or just holding back or whatever. They definitely have to have their best game of the tournament if they're to win, unless Italy conceed a shaky goal which every now and again they look like they might.

I dont know how you judge the Italian defence to be better than a team who have only conceded one goal. The midfield is contentious but nearly all Spains goals have come from midfielders and i dont think they have ever had less than about 60% possession. Spain only play with a striker 50% of the time so maybe Italy have that one.

UNDERRATED - Arbeloa. Brilliant against Portugal. Generally a very good defender, bar one game, can't remember who it was against, but he got out-ran a bit.

OVERRATED - Gabre Selassie (Czech Republic) - actually a bit suspect defensively, and only played four games. No wonder he's signed for Bremen and not a top side. People can stop wanking about him now. Cheers.

Klose looked a million times sharper than Gomez last night, but he's not realistically going to be around much longer. Do any of the foreign-league watching virgins know if any good German strikers are coming through?

Klose didn't do much more, Italy were just set up defensively to cancel out Germany playing a lone striker and two out wide, didn't really matter who. This is also what Spain are doing, so therefore, ITALY WINS

he scored 26 goals this year, it's just he's a bit of a Ibra/Samaras type, but they have lots of other goals to be found in Podolski and Reus. The only other German to make an impact last year was Stefan_Kießling who scored 16 for Leverkusen, but he's 28 already.

Klose always seems to sneak under the radar - he's never mentioned in amongst the top strikers, but for Germany, he's something like 4 goals off Gerd Muller's record. Think he's got 63/64, and that's phenomenal

But you could see yesterday that compared to Gomez he was always looking to make a run and keep the defence on its toes. His 'Off the ball' stat must be like 19 or 20, easily. It was far easier for Italy to cut off any supply to Gomez than to Klose.

It would usually be a bbc no brainer but I'm going to switch to ITV because I can't stand it any longer. Please stop paying Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson to say things about football on me telly, thanks.

Neuer is the most Teutonic man to ever live. He looks like he was conceived in Hitler's mind.
Usually think Balotelli is a bit of a twat (lolsome off the pitch stuff is great, repeated nasty, nasty fouls aren't) but was rooting for him big time yesterday and will do again on Sunday.
Last night was a bigger shock than Denmark beating Netherlands and will unfortunately probably remain the shock of the tournament.
I still really love Vialli.

but also because, I don't think we have anyone else quite like him in the squad: a really skilful dribbler who can combine trickery with pace. He could have been a great asset in helping us open up stubborn defences. If Harry were still in charge, I'd have seen his departure as a sad inevitability, but with a new boss coming in, it's a shame he couldn't stick around for a few months to see if things would be any different for him.